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Tempus and NYU School of Medicine Announce New Initiative to Help Improve Outcomes for Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Tempus, a technology company focused on helping doctors personalize cancer care by collecting and analyzing large volumes of molecular and clinical data, today announced a collaboration with NYU School of Medicine aimed at improving outcomes for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and has a five-year survival rate of just nine percent. While personalized treatment approaches have led to improvements in treatment of other cancer types, the genetic mutations commonly seen in pancreatic cancer do not yet have “druggable” targets. A longstanding issue with pancreatic cancer is that patients with a similar diagnosis often have different outcomes, even when treated with the same therapies. Collecting molecular and clinical data for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will allow researchers to identify patterns associated to the prognosis, diagnosis, targetability and side effects of the disease.

As part of the research collaboration, Tempus will work directly with world-renowned investigator Diane M. Simeone, MD, associate director for translational research at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and head of its newly established Pancreatic Cancer Center at NYU Langone.

NYU Langone has collected data from roughly 500 patients with pancreatic cancer. Tempus will structure and analyze the data and will generate additional genomic data for a subset of those patients. The goal is to help cancer specialists uncover patterns that can predict how patients will respond to treatment.

“Our partnership with Tempus allows us to incorporate breakthroughs in genomics and technology to drive discoveries that have real impact on patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Simeone.

“Generating and analyzing the data may provide evidence for alternative treatment choices where patients have seen little benefit with the current standard of care,” said Eric Lefkofsky, founder and CEO at Tempus. “It is likely that a combined analysis of the genomic and phenotypic patterns of pancreatic cancer will lead to the next big breakthroughs in this difficult to treat cancer.”

Perlmutter Cancer Center is one of only 48 Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the U.S. designated by the National Cancer Institute.

Tempus is currently working with a number of NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers on pancreatic cancer projects aimed at improving outcomes for patients diagnosed with this challenging disease.